An Eye For An Eye
by ConfusedColumbia26220
Summary: Nellie must experience a terrible heartbreak for her most desired wish to come true. ONESHOT! Sweenett. You may need some tissues, just a friendly warning.


**Disclaimer: The events in what you are about to read do not belong to me whatsoever. They are also a product of fiction, anything relevant to actual events, or persons in extremely coincidental. Thank you for you time in both reading this and my story.**

Nellie Lovett was always somewhat a hard woman, but the day in which the event you are about to read about took place, something changed. She became extremely soft out of nowhere, for no reason at all. That was the first sign that something very bad would happen that day, but no one could infer that. Well, Nellie couldn't infer that, nor anyone else because no one else knew. That day there was to come an event, one of the most dreadful things to ever happen to her in order for the best thing imaginable to happen. On Wednsday, the 23rd of September at 4:34 pm, just before the dinner rush, Nellie's darling little Toby suddenly died.

Nellie had found him at 5:00 pm, right when she was going to open the doors to her pie shop. The lad hadn't washed the dishes as she had requested of him earlier and she wanted to know why so she went to investigate. She found him on the settee, he looked like he was asleep. She gently tried to wake him up, and got no response. Fifteen minutes passed and she was still trying. After ten minutes of literally shaking him, Nellie finally got the thought to check his pulse. The results were heartwrenching. A tear escaped her eye and dripped onto his hair. "No," she whispered in agony. "Please, please not me boy. Not me precious Toby," more tears fell. Soon the floodgates opened and she broke down. She sobbed.

"Why?! Why him?!" she shouted at the ceiling, to God. "Why have you taken him from me?! Why couldn't you have TAKEN ME INSTEAD!!! 'E - 'e was so young, 'ad the 'ole world ahead of 'im!!! I wouldn't be leaving anyone behind. . .now 'e's left me!" she was surprised that her anger made her able to properly enunciate words. "Please, Lord. . .bring 'im back! Take me and bring 'im back, ple-e-e-e-ease!" It seemed she would have yet another body to dispose of, but this one wouldn't be so easy. Then more then ever she needed to be held and loved. Ironically, the only person who could do that was recently deceased. Well, the only willing person who could do that. Sweeney was still stuck in his little world of getting revenge for Lucy and Johanna. Never would he spare a second glance at her. Or at anyone, for that matter. This train of thought is what made Nellie so surprised when she heard a voice behind her,

"Nellie?" It was Sweeney, and it was also the first time he'd addressed her by her first name. She slowly turned around to look at him. She was certainly a sight, and not one Sweeney was used to seeing every day. Her face was blood red, her eyes and nose puffy, her face slick with tears and snot from her running nose.

"'E-'E-'E. . .'E's gone!" she stammered but finally managed to tell Sweeney the news. It made Sweeney's heart of black ice melt like plastic in a fire. He had never seen anyone so upset, let alone Nellie Lovett, the strongest woman he'd ever met. He'd came downstairs because he'd heard her yelling and thought she might've been in some kind of danger, and even though she was not physically damaged, there was definately something wrong with her. Now she'd experienced a loss of her own and now. . .now he could actually relate to her. For the first time he forgot about Lucy and Johanna. For the first time it was Nellie and Toby, only now just Nellie. Her sobbing slashed through his heart like one of his own razors. He realized that Nellie had always been there for him during his rough times, save those fifteen years in Australia. It was about time that he'd return the favor.

Sweeney walked over to where Nellie sat, crumpled in upon herself on the floor. He knelt down next to her and pulled her sobbing form close to him. "I'm sorry," he told her. Nellie cried into him, making him shake with the vibrations. Sweeney wanted to make her pain go away, though he knew there was very little he could do, of which bringing Toby back wasn't a part of. He tilted Nellie's face up so he was looking her in her big, dark, teary, anguish-filled eyes. He kissed her, he could taste the saltiness of her tears. He had to give her a chance, he'd realized. He had to give _them_ a chance. It would certainly be healthier than grieving over Lucy and plotting her avengement. Besides, she'd left him intentionally. Nellie, Nellie _needed_ him. Just as he had needed Lucy, but Lucy had abandoned him. He would not let himself be another Lucy. Nellie, she loved him even. She loved a murderer unconditionally and irrevocably. He knew that.

Sweeney hugged Nellie tighter. He then told her the words she'd longed to hear come from his mouth, and they were in honesty, at least for that moment. "I love you," he'd said. "I love you, and you are hurting. I am going to make this better," he promised her. Now Sweeney Todd had a new purpose. Keeping Nellie happy, keeping _his_ Nellie happy.

Nellie looked up at him, shock showing through her sadness. "What did you just say?" at least she had calmed enough to form coherent words, though she was still shaking like a leaf. She had a pained look to her eyes, as if Sweeney were only doing this only for his sick, twisted amusement and was lying through his teeth, just to make her even more miserable. But he wasn't.

"I said, I love you, Nellie," Sweeney repeated. "I love you," he said again. The pained look in Nellie's eyes dimmed. So what if he didn't really mean it? She could enjoy it while it lasted. He was truthful with those words, though. She would come to learn that in time.

"Sweeney?" Nellie asked.

"Yes, love?" _Love_, she nearly swooned.

"I love you, too, you know that, right? Unconditionally and irrevocably," she told him. Now that she'd poured what was left of her heart to him, she really hoped she wouldn't regret it later in life. Her hope came true, never did she regret the day that she told Sweeney Todd she loved him, nor Sweeney to her. They were happy until the day they died, which thankfully was the same day, at night, in their sleep, in each other's arms. Guess what the last thing they told each other was, 'I love you,'.

You never know, but it is said that Nellie Lovett and Sweeney Todd have been sent to heaven for eternal life, despite their sins, because the Lord is forgiving. It is said that they were reunited with Toby, and it is said that they are still living 'up there', together, happy for eternity.


End file.
